Posts Tagged ‘Israel Police’

An eight-year-old Jerusalem Arab boy is learning to become a terrorist; he was caught hurling rocks Wednesday (July 22) at Border Police officers in Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives cemetery.

The officers became aware of the tender youth of their attacker only after the rocks began flying their way, forcing them to seek the identity of the terrorist targeting their station.

A spokesperson for the Jerusalem police force called on the child’s parents and local leadership to protect the children in the area and ensure their safety by preventing them from becoming involved in violence that could put their lives and those of others at risk.

The spokesperson added the Jerusalem Police force regrets that children are being introduced into the cycle of crime and feel the need to carry out acts of violence against police.

The Mount of Olives has been a flash spot for Arab violence. Jewish visitors to the ancient cemetery have become apprehensive about visiting the resting place of their ancestors due to the danger of approaching the area.

This past April, three Israel Police officers were injured by an Arab vehicle terrorist who targeted them in an attack on the Mount of Olives.

Two female officers and one male officer were taken to Shaare Tzedek Medical Center after they were struck by the vehicle. First responders were forced to flee the area after they came under fire by Arabs hurling rocks and firebombs at them.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was similarly attacked by Arabs hurling rocks as he drove to the scene as well.

It is said that during the time of Moshiach (Messiah), the resurrection of the dead will begin from the Mount of Olives. For that reason, the ancient cemetery has been the resting place of choice for Torah Sages for some 3,000 years.

Israel apparently has a double standard for law enforcement when it’s Jews who are yelling “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) at the Temple Mount and Western Wall plazas.

Jewish activists returned Wednesday to both areas in the Old City of Jerusalem in order to test their theory that police would not treat Jews as they do Arabs when they behave the same.

The Jews in the video were protesting a decision by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court that Arab chants of “Allahu Akbar” on the site – the typical radical Islamist cry by jihadists waging holy war – present no legal problem.

Justice Joiya Saqifa Shapiro determined in the decision that verbal attacks by Muslims shouting “Allahu Akbar” against Jewish tour groups on the Temple Mount do not constitute a criminal offense. Nor is there any legal problem with closing the site to Jews for a 10-day period until the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan due to a fear of rioting.

Activists arrived at the Western Wall entrance to the Temple Mount in force on Wednesday to protest both decisions.

“Surprisingly, and in contrast to the court’s decision that shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ is no problem at the site, police were called to deal with the activists’ yelling,” said the Honenu civil rights organization in a statement. “Police actually decided to arrest six of the protesters on suspicion of disrupting the public order.”

The Court has previously determined that such behavior presents no legal issue when it is carried out by Arabs at the same site, the group pointed out.

Honenu representative Isaac Weiner went to the police precinct to aid the detainees, and pointed out to police officials that the detention was illegal and constituted “blatant discrimination” by Israel Police.

The activists were released on condition they would respect a restriction barring them from entering the Old City for the next two weeks – and the area of the Temple Mount in particular.

Several of the activists are to appear at a hearing in the Magistrate’s Court today (Thursday, July 9) in order to officially review the restrictions imposed against them.

“Today has proven what we have been saying for a long time,” said a spokesperson for Honenu. “Authorities have ramped up discrimination against Jews at the holy sites in the Old City, in particular at the Temple Mount.

“It is inconceivable that Jews should be arrested by police for the same acts that do not constitute an offense in the eyes of the Court when carried out by Arabs.”

Honenu added that it would consider filing a lawsuit against the police for false arrest and a petition to appeal the order restricting the activists from entering the Old City.

Israel Police announced the arrest of some 50 suspects on Monday after a years-long investigation dealing with organized crime.

“This case deals with a series of incidents and suspected offenses committed in Israel and abroad,” said a police spokesperson. [They were] “serious and organized crimes that include violence and drugs, committed by dozens of suspects, some of whom are identified with activities of crime organizations.”

Dozens of homes of suspects across Israel were raided over the weekend, with seizures of vehicles, property and bank accounts.

The suspects are to be brought before a judge on Tuesday for extension of their remand, police said. All allegations were denied by the attorneys for their clients.

In slightly over a month, at least one million Jews will mark a horrifying event that became the straw that broke the camel’s back in Israel, igniting another war on terror in Gaza.

June 3 corresponds with the date on the Hebrew calendar that marks the abduction of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Frenkel, 16, and Gilad Sha’ar, 16.

The event is being organized by the families of the three boys, together with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and the Gesher organization.

The three families also recently celebrated the launching of the Jerusalem Unity Prize, to be awarded for the first time on June 3 as well.

Together with the Jerusalem municipality, Gesher and Israel President Reuven Rivlin, the three families celebrated the launch of the Jerusalem Unity Prize several months ago. It is intended to commemorate and further the Jewish unity that was seen when the entire nation of Israel came together to pray and help search for the missing boys.

The three boys were kidnapped on June 12 by Hamas terrorists while hitchiking home from yeshiva in Gush Etzion on a Thursday evening. They were murdered in cold blood shortly after they were grabbed; a shooting that was heard on a recording made by Israel Police when one of them managed to dial the emergency dispatcher in a desperate cry for help.

It took nearly three weeks for search and rescue teams and volunteers to locate their bodies in a shallow grave, hastily dug in a field in Halhul. During that time, Jews in Israel and around the world came together in an unprecedented show of unity to pray, demonstrate and otherwise show their support for the families and other Jews.

Israeli security forces continue to search for a 22-year-old Jewish man who went missing around 4:20 pm Thursday afternoon. Both he and the friend with whom he was driving in the area are residents of Be’er Sheva, according to a report on Israel’s Channel 2 television.

Police received a call at the Judea and Samaria District Police 100 Center from a man who said his friend had gone to look for tools to fix a flat tire. It had been more than an hour since he left, but had not yet returned.

IDF operating in Beit Anoun, near the Jewish community of Kiryat Arba and the city of Hebron.

Palestinian media have already published a photo of the man, as well as his name, but these details are being withheld from Israeli media under gag order.

The incident occurred after the car in which he and his friend were driving broke down at the Beit Anoun junction outside Hebron, near the Jewish community of Kiryat Arba.

Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Jewish Press.com that police officers and IDF troops immediately launched an intensive search which has since widened to include the areas around the Palestinian Authority towns of Halhul and El Aroub, both located north of Beit Anoun and Hebron.

Officials said the missing man was wearing a KKL hoodie and a pair of jeans.

Israel Police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) forces have continued to operate at the intelligence level in the area as well, and by nightfall were working on the assumption he had been kidnapped.

Roads leading to and from the village of Beit Anoun via Highway 60 and Highway 35 were closed in order to stymie any potential kidnappers.

Beit Anoun is close to Hebron and the Jewish community of Kiryat Arba.

7:34 PM There are reports that the car did not have a flat tire, and it was parked close to Kiryat Arba so there was no reason for the man to enter Beit Anoun when Kiryat Arba was closer. The explanation the friend gave is problematic; he is being questioned again by security personnel.

The man also left his telephone in the car; it’s not clear whether that was deliberate or accidental.

Regardless of the reason the man entered the Arab village, however, Israeli forces are treating his disappearance as a full-blown security incident.

The area around Halhul and El Aroub is now closed as IDF troops move from house to house searching for the missing man, whose identity still has not been released for publication.

8:09 PM His friend who stayed with the car is a Bedouin. The car did not have a flat tire, but it appears someone did release some air from the tire to make it look flat.

Security forces suspect this began as criminal activity, but has ended up a nationalistic kidnapping, according to Channel 10.

8:13 pmChannel 2 reported that the friend has changed his version of the story three times in telling it to the security forces.

9:20 pm A field command center has been set up in the Kiryat Arba gas station as the search for the missing Israeli mans continues and expands.

PM Binyamin Netanyahu says it may be time to appoint a female chief of police in Israel.

“It could be the right thing to do,” he said in a speech today (Tuesday, Jan. 27). Possibly the time has come to appoint down the road a female chief of police.

“I want to advance this idea,” Netanyahu continued. “It would be a refreshing change, a female chief of the Israel Police.”

The prime minister’s remark followed an announcement Monday by the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigations Department (PID) that a senior officer was questioned about allegations he harassed a lower-level policewoman. Eight other women may have been harassed as well by the same officer, who is suspected of also having obstructed justice and having destroyed evidence.

National Chief of Police/Inspector-General Yochanan Danino met earlier today with Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch at the ministry in Jerusalem. On the agenda for the two men was the issue of how much damage had been caused to the image of Israel’s national police force by the continuing scandals and how to prevent repetitions in the future.

“This incident is a severe one,” Danino told reporters. “They deal a blow to public faith in the police and call for an organizational root canal.”

This was the seventh such scandal in just over a year. Danino told media that he would like to say to Israeli citizens, “You have a police force that you can trust despite these recent events and we have our way of dealing with them.”

The first female chief of police in the United States to be appointed in a major city was Penny Harrington, who became the chief in Portland, Oregon in 1985. The first female police officer to actually be appointed to a force in the U.S. was Lola Baldwin, who also was hired in Portland, Oregon on April 1, 1908. Today, one percent of all police chiefs in the United States are female.